Tributes pour in for Dennis

By JOHN DeMONT and LAURA FRASER Staff ReportersPublished December 2, 2011 - 4:37am Last Updated December 3, 2011 - 5:23am

Publisher’s dedication to Nova Scotia was admired by many

Graham Dennis speaks during the commissioning ceremony for the newspaper's Wifag printing press in Bedord on June 10, 2004. (PETER PARSONS / Staff)

Tributes to Chronicle Herald publisher Graham Dennis poured in from across the province, region and country Thursday.

Business, political and social leaders recalled him as a man who cared deeply for his family, his employees, his newspaper and his province.

Friends and colleagues remembered his courtly Old World style, grace and personal warmth.

Those who knew Mr. Dennis mourned the passing Thursday of a Nova Scotian who gave generously to his community, a businessman who valued people over profits and a newspaper publisher who stood steadfastly for journalistic independence in an era of media monoliths.

Arthur Irving, chairman of Irving Oil Co., said he was saddened by the passing of a "good guy" who was "always a pleasure to be with."

He recalled Mr. Dennis as a man of conviction who knew what he wanted to do and went out and did it.

"He ran a good newspaper and that was absolutely his life, to run a good newspaper," said Mr. Irving, who first met Mr. Dennis when he came to visit his father, K.C. Irving.

"Every day he was on the job, no question about it. He wanted Nova Scotia to do well. He always tried to do everything he could for Nova Scotia, and he lived that every day."

Mr. Irving said he got to know Mr. Dennis well while serving as chancellor of Acadia University.

"He would come and visit and he was good to Acadia," he said.

"He always had a soft spot for the Valley and the university. It was always pleasant to see him. He will be missed."

David F. Sobey, chairman emeritus of Sobeys Inc., got to know Mr. Dennis when Sobeys opened stores in the Halifax region in the 1950s and his company became more frequent advertisers in Halifax Herald publications.

"I had the opportunity to meet and work with Graham on many projects," he said.

"I soon recognized that Graham was very dedicated to his business and very generous when it came to giving to or supporting worthy causes."

Allan Shaw, non-executive chairman of the Shaw Group, remembered Mr. Dennis as a "businessman and long-standing friend of the family and of the Shaw Group."

Mr. Shaw remembered Mr. Dennis’s old-fashioned elegance, the way he walked to work — "always in a suit; often three-piece"— and the courteous way he would greet people: "How are you today, sir?"

Back in the 1980s, Mr. Shaw was chairing his first major fundraising campaign for Halifax Metro United Way. The previous year’s campaign had not gone well. Mr. Shaw and his team had plans but needed a breakthrough to make real headway.

"Out of the blue, I received a phone call from Graham saying: ‘Sir, I want to help you with this campaign. May I drop over to your offices now to discuss it?’

"Of course, my answer was yes! We were thrilled to receive a visit from the publisher of The Chronicle Herald."

Mr. Shaw said Mr. Dennis "offered generous financial support and, equally important, continual, very visible profile in the paper for the duration of the campaign."

He added: "With this mentoring, interest, loyalty and use of the tools at his disposal, he helped create the biggest gain in contributions and the largest total donations in United Way’s history to that point."

On a national scale, Mr. Dennis was known as one of a very few publishers in Canada who kept his newspaper family-owned in an era when chains were swallowing up all they could. The Chronicle Herald and the Winnipeg Free Press are the only major regional papers that remain under independent ownership in Canada.

"The Chronicle Herald, he just lived for it, I think," said former prime minister Paul Martin.

"He was very proud that it was independently owned."

Mr. Dennis was friends with Mr. Martin’s father, Paul Sr.

When the younger Martin met him as a "young MP" in his 40s on a trip to Halifax, he said he quickly discovered that time with Mr. Dennis was time well-spent.

"Virtually every other time I came to Halifax and we met, we would sit down and discuss politics quite philosophically, if I recall," said Mr. Martin.

"He was a man of very strong and also very deep opinions, and somebody that I admired enormously."

Mr. Dennis was also known for his journeys criss-crossing Nova Scotia’s back roads to see for himself what was going on in the province. In the course of those trips, he would often see things he wanted to discuss with someone.

Sometimes, when Mr. Dennis was travelling through Pictou County, that someone was former premier John Hamm.

"I always welcomed his visits because, you know, he thought about things before he spoke about things," Mr. Hamm said. "His remarks were not casual, they were always well orchestrated."

Mr. Hamm calls himself a fan of the man’s determination to resist the changing times and keep The Chronicle Herald locally owned as well as his dedication to the province.

In his view, Mr. Dennis approached everything from the perspective of what would be best for Nova Scotia.

"It’s a sad day," said Mr. Hamm.

Mr. Dennis wanted to know what was happening in every part of the province, remembered former Tory MP Bill Casey, who also had his share of unexpected drop-ins.

"All the time I knew him, it was the forefront of his concern — every single corner of Nova Scotia and the obligation of The Halifax Herald to serve it," said Mr. Casey.

He said both The Chronicle Herald and the province were made better by Mr. Dennis’s determination to keep the paper locally owned and focused on local issues.

One of those who knew him best — Mary Lou Croft, The Chronicle Herald’s executive vice-president — said Mr. Dennis presented a study in contrasts.

He maintained a fierce pride in his family’s paper and its independence, tempered by the gentleman familiar to his employees.

"Obviously, Graham Dennis had choices through his life, but the paper was always what he felt was what he needed to do and he stuck with it. He wasn’t interested in selling. He believed in the independent voice for Nova Scotia," she said.

"Certainly the dedication and the loyalty from a lot of people here was because he believed in them, he believed in the product, and he believed in what we were doing."

The publisher’s gentlemanly courtesy inspired his belief in the people who worked for him. She was one of those people, steadily climbing the corporate ladder after she began as a summer student 29 years ago.

Despite having worked alongside the publisher for 15 years, she always called him by his surname, a token of fond respect adopted by his staff.

"I’ve never been able to call him Graham," she said.

"But he has said to me, ‘Cut that formal stuff. Call me Graham, Mrs. Croft.’ It was OK for him to be formal, but not so much for me.